For a moment Saturday afternoon, it seemed that the magic might finally be there for Jordan Farmar.

Farmar, UCLA’s sophomore point guard, hit a fallaway jumper from the free-throw line with 67 seconds remaining to cut Cal’s lead to 60-58, but Farmar’s good times didn’t last long.

About 40 seconds later, Farmar missed the front end of two free throws with the Bruins down four points. UCLA went on to lose by seven, compounding the frustration for Farmar, who played on a sprained ankle and made only two of 11 shots from the field for six points in 36 minutes.

“I didn’t play to my potential,” Farmar said. “I let the team down.”

Farmar might have been a bit tough on himself. His status for Saturday’s game had been in doubt after he aggravated an ankle injury in Thursday’s victory over Stanford, but Farmar convinced coach Ben Howland that he could play and took to the court wearing extra tape and a small brace on his right ankle.

From the start, however, Farmar seemed a step slow and out of sync. The jumper was Farmar’s only basket of the second half, and he finished 0 for 5 from 3-point range.

“I’m not going to make any excuses,” Farmar said. “It wasn’t because of my ankle. Cal just came out and did a good job and played hard and deserved to win today. I wanted to be healthy, but I definitely have no excuses. Hats off to them for the way they played.”

Farmar (Taft High of Woodland Hills) averaged 16 points in nine nonconference games but has totaled 10 points in his first two Pac-10 games, although he played just 14 minutes against Stanford before he injured the ankle.

Steep learning curve: One bright spot for the Bruins was the play of freshman forward Alfred Aboya, who missed the first six games of this season while recovery from knee surgery.

Aboya played a season-high 20 minutes, made all four of his shots from the field for eight points and grabbed three offensive rebounds. Midway through the second half, Aboya made three consecutive baskets to help the Bruins turn a 39-33 deficit into a 41-41 score.

“I thought Aboya came in and gave us a spark,” Howland said, “but we didn’t have much of an inside attack.”

Aboya was the only post player to make an impact. In 44 combined minutes, starting center Lorenzo Mata and forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute went 1 for 10 from the field for seven points, eight rebounds and seven fouls. Backup center Ryan Wright had three points and zero rebounds in 15 minutes.

A big one: Cal’s victory Saturday was its first over a ranked team since a 1999 victory over No. 7 Arizona, and it was the Bears’ first road victory over a ranked team since 1995, at Arizona.

Rich Hammond was a high school senior when the Rams left town in 1995, and now he's their beat writer for the Southern California News Group. A native of L.A., Rich broke in at the Daily Breeze as a college freshman and also has covered USC, the Kings, the Lakers and the Dodgers. He still loves sports and telling stories. Don't take the sarcastic tweets too seriously.